₦airaland Forum

Ileke-IdI:
https://i.imgur.com/0E2N1.jpg

What group/culture is this?

Ileke-IdI:
https://i.imgur.com/ofyrU.jpg

And this?


https://i.imgur.com/TcMhJ.jpg

And this?

Can you attach names of groups to the pictures please? Thanks.

This should have been done sooner. Obasanjo & Yar' Adua were vision-less.  They should build 30 or 50 more afterwards and forget about debt temporarily. And they should get moving on exploiting the natural gas involved in their much touted "master plan" as well. With proper coal and natural gas exploitation, Nigeria shouldn't go a day or an hour without electricity.

He doesn't look Nigerian to me. Honestly.

Horus:
https://www.eximiousbooks.com/exb455/images/items/006656.jpg

Nigeria: Country to Send Astronaut to Space

(Lagos)

26 July 2007
Posted to the web 26 July 2007

Taye Obateru and Chris Ogbonna
Jos

Director General of National Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA) Professor Robert Borrofice has said[b] [size=15pt]Nigeria will send it first astronaut to space by the year 2015[/b] [/size]

Horus:
Nigerian Space Program Isn't a 419 Scam
10.19.07


https://www.wired.com/images/article/full/2007/10/robert_boroffice_500px.jpg
Robert Boroffice, leader of Nigeria's NASRDA, sees endless opportunity in a burgeoning space program.

[size=15pt]Boroffice, a former biology teacher[/size] [/b]who will address the PopTech conference Friday in Camden, Maine, must at times contend with the accusation that he is overseeing a gross mistake. (Wired News is covering the PopTech conference on the Underwire blog.)
Africa's most populous country, Nigeria is saddled with a sub-Saharan developing nation's standard-issue burdens: disease, poverty, corruption and malnutrition.
[b][size=15pt]Boroffice thinks space technology is the key to addressing such woes relatively cheaply and efficiently[/size]. For example, NASRDA spent $13 million, less than 0.1 percent of the nation's budget, in the 2003 launch of NigeriaSat-1, [size=15pt]an advanced imaging atellite that punches its weight with 1990s satellites [/size][/b]in the $300 million class. [b][size=15pt]NigeriaSat-1  the first satellite to provide close-up images of the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina[/size] helped sow the seeds of technological development in a nation that needs engineers, infrastructure and IT.

Everything I'm reading here has made me very skeptical and wondering whether this Dr. Boroffice (a biologist) isn't completely ignorant. How can Nigeria send an astronaut into space by 2015?


And why the heck is this thread in the TV/movies section? This forum is screwed up.

hmmm. . .


Why was this in the business/money section?

hmmm. . .

This is the reason:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-51356.0.html

The term "sub-saharan Africa" is probably just a slick way to avoid saying "black Africa." If a white person in a Western country, while discussing Africa with other Westerners, wants to criticize black Africa's (lack of?) progress without sounding as if they're "racializing" the discussion or making it a racial issue, then they would probably want to opt for a seemingly more neutral, and apparently geographical term. It's obvious that black Africa is what is being referred to of course. My point is that this label is possibly just a product of political correctness.


I actually kind of like the sound of "black Africa" though and definitely prefer it to sub-saharan Africa.

I think you mean "complementary" and not "complimentary." These two words have different meanings.

The old man in that story sounds confused. Things can complement/assist each other without being the same. In fact, to complement each other, they almost certainly have to be different.

@ Agbontaen/solomon omojie

Since you are here, I might as well confront you about just one of the statements that you made on that NigeriaBest forum. I would respond directly to that thread on the NigeriaBest forum, but I don't feel like registering there, and most of the material on that thread honestly doesn't concern me.

I read on that NigeriaBest forum where you wrote that David van Nyendael claimed this:


"1702 , the  famous dutch  man nyandel visited benin and later settled  in agbor, this are some  of the  things  he  left  in his diary- many families migrating from benin and settling  into agbor.
  he  also  wrote about the war around that time between benin and agbor in which he recorded that agbor won over the  benin army and that after  the victory , there was  a  peace accord and that the agbor army did not  burn the palace of the  oba , because of the blood lineage between the obi  of agbor and  oba  of benin . "



This is a complete fabrication. I have read the comments you are referring to and distorting and they clearly refer not only to a Benin chief, but very specifically to a chief that Nyendael's Benin informant claims was beloved by the people of Benin city itself. His informant also claims that when the civil war happened, many of the people of Benin followed this chief out of Benin to a set up a court at a place a short distance away. He says nothing about any "blood lineage" being the reason that the palace was not destroyed and this is just another fabrication. He also mentions nothing about Agbor (which already existed before the  late 1600s/early 1700s and could not have had its royal court set up by this one Benin chief).

The Benin chief in question is the Iyase n'Ode, not any Obi of Agbor and it is sheer dishonesty to keep repeating this fabrication just because some people want to distort certain sources for their own purposes.

By the way, the Iyase's base was the village of Ugha north of Benin, near Ehor, not Agbor.

Iyase n'Ode supported Ozuere's ascension to the throne over Oba Akenzua and this led to a civil war, in which Oba Akenzua had to get the assistance of Ehenua (who became the Ezomo) in order to defeat the Iyase (after the Iyase had already ravaged Benin (except for the palace)). Ozuere was the brother of Oba Akenzua and a usurper (the throne belonged to the eldest legitimate son but there was a dispute over who was really the oldest.)



By the way, on some inaccurate internet websites you will see it stated that Iyase n'Ode supported Oba Akenzua but this is completely and totally incorrect and a complete reversal of the truth (one of the reasons it's not always good to rely on internet write ups). One of the internet writers who made this mistake was Naiwu Osahon, who Ogbuefi tried to present as an infallible authority about Benin, because Ogbuefi stumbled on one of Mr. Osahon's internet (not newspaper) writings through Google. The Iyase n'Ode supported Prince Ozuere, not Akenzua, and Oba Akenzua had to get Ehenua's assistance to defeat the Iyase n'Ode, but before this happened, the powerful Iyase (who had a large following) did attack the city (except for the palace). There are multiple writings on this Ewuakpe - Ozuere - Iyase n'Ode - Akenzua - Ehenua period of Benin history, some of which make reference to van Nyendael's statements and note how they seem to match up in certain areas with Egharevba's account of a protracted conflict between the Oba and the Iyase in this period.

The Benin civil war had nothing to do with Agbor and there was no recollection of a war with Agbor at that time by Benin historians. And there is certainly not any statement by Nyendael about a Benin Agbor war at that time. The 16th century (circa 1577) Benin-Agbor war is believed to have been won by Benin, but as with many of the kingdoms Benin defeated, it only managed to keep its grip on that conquered kingdom for a limited time and there isn't any evidence that Agbor was under a Benin chief (who was liked by the people of the city) in the late 1600s or early 1700s.

Just setting the record straight, since you seem to (like to) know a lot about history.

This thread is still up and going?

This thread will overtake that "True Extent of. . ." thread if this keeps going. I don't see how much more there is to discuss.


Hey Ngodigha, call your master Ogbuefi back here. Tell him to leave the forests of Igbodo and come back to the thread so I can post my rebuttal to his many fabrications. It suddenly became very important to him for responses to be posted while the other person is on the thread, even though he was the first to take advantage of my absence and go on a posting streak, so I want him here to see how all those fabrications (especially the Ubulu uku crap) are demolished. If you can reach cow-killer by email or by juju, get him back here, immediately. Thanks.

Ogbuefi, nwanne (did I get that right?   ) bia (?) back to this thread if you're still reading. I have a response coming up tomorrow for your statements and some parts of it are scathing. I would hate for you to not give a response after the exposure and rejoinder that I'm going to deliver.

True. I made too much of it. I'll drop it.

@ Ogbuefi

2) On Ozanogogo, I find this claims of yours funny and irresponsible. Ozarra has been assimilated as part of Agbor belonging to the Ihu-Ozomor group of communities.The people of Agbor have never laidany claim on Ozanisi because their territory never extended beyond the Orhionmwon river and there are traditional Egbo( or Ikhimi) trees seperating the Agbor and Benin kingdoms along the river and this has been the case for centuries. Let me give you the example of Iru( an Ika town in Orhionmwon).The people of Iru migrated from Owa Alizomor and were granted lands by the Benin people of Isi . And this is the practice , any issue as it relates to land are referred to the Oba while other civil and criminal issues are referred to the Obi of Owa.This is the custom in Iru yet Anioma people have never claimed Iruland since it was founded on what is traditionally Benin territory. On Ozarra , there are never issues referred to the Oba , on land or what soever. I therefore wonder why so passionately claim that the Ozanogogo people  are being "oppressed" in Agbor. The titles used in Ozarra are derived from the Obi of Agbor and all issues including chieftancy are referred to the Obi in Council of Agbor via the Ogisi which is an Agbor title. I once referred you to the Oza Group on FB, Did you do that ? Did you not see that the Oza people themselves know that Ozanisi(in Benin) is just an offshoot of Ozarra( in Agbor).

Look, some Ozanogogo people themselves are the ones that claimed that "Ozanogogo people are being 'oppressed' in Agbor" and I repeatedly asked for a refutation or clarification about the specific claims and all I got was talk of mineral royalties that should probably belong entirely to that community anyway. I have said this already, but I am not concerned with them being in the Benin kingdom, but rather with establishing the facts about their ethnicity.

I simply believe that if not for colonial politics, they would have broken free of their historical link to Agbor and reunited with the other Oza in Edo state.

I dont think the Ozarra people are being oppressed over their language (which have over the years have been saturated with  Igbo words ) because the Agbor people themselves are indifferent over this since they are part and parcel of Agbor kingdom and from a broader perspective , they know that they are mainly of Edo origin. So the arrival of Oza is more or less a reflection of their origin as Agbor people . For your information the name Agbor (Agbon) is of Edo origin meaning the world , I therefore donot see any difference between your "Ailelehan" and Agbor itself.The case of Iru( an Ika settlement in Benin) and Ozanogogo( originally an Edo settlement in Agbor) are both settled matter and are completely different from the situation in Igbanke.
Your desperation on this Ozanogogo issue is simple to justify the Benin annexation of the  Igbanke  community.Oh yes I wrote it somewhere when I had some issues with Omojie who have transformed himself to Agbontaen here. But the people of Igbanke never said that they can never be reunited with their kith and kin since the issues that made them allied with the Benin is no longer  there and this was even the reason why the communities of Igbanke East namely Ottah, Ake and Oligie was at one time administered from the Ika division before Ogbemudia using military high handedness  decided to annex these villages as part of Benin.

In your list of "great " Edo citizens you listed Prof Philip Igbafe , I wonder if you have read his book BENIN UNDER BRITISH ADMINISTRATION ( 1897-1938) he clearly noted that Igbanke is part and parcel of Ikaland and interestingly not even one reference was made on the supposed opressed people of Ozanogogo.
At that time Igbanke requested to be merged with Benin , the Ika town of Mbiri did likewise but this was not granted. Now this request did not make Mbiri a Benin colonial outpost which the Benin have taken Igbanke to be.
On the Oba creating six "dukedoms" in Igbanke, You have exposed your ignorance here.The Ojehs or Ezes of Igbanke are not unique in this regard since several Anioma towns have many multiple rulers(I can list examples if asked) and this was why I asked that simple question that if indeed Benins have always been overlords in Igbanke why are there six monarchies in one town ?

I don't believe that "the Benins have always been overlords" in Igbanke and it's not an issue for me who was overlord of what. The only issue is the ethnicity of the people, not who had "overlordship" over them. I recall their specifically getting transferred to Benin division to get away from weak and tenuous claims of overlordship from other kingdoms.

You have narrowly defined ethnicity to make it implausible for them to be of very significant Edo descent as well as heavily of Igbo descent in order to argue that they should be in Anioma. I know that they are an Ika group and should be in Anioma. But what you aren't considering is that other people might see them as heavily Edo. On the name issue for example, you mentioned a few Igbanke people that had fully Igbo names, but I don't think that this is telling the whole story. On the same facebook that you were referring me to for Oza nogogo, if one looks for Igbanke people and discussions, one sees immediately that their use of Edo (Bini) names is quite "excessive" even for an Ika group. This would be just one of the sources of confusion to Edo people about their ethnicity. In the same way that finding many Igbanke people with fully Igbo names would strengthen your (correct) argument that they are indeed Ika, Edo people seeing those Igbanke people with fully Edo names would come to a different conclusion. Igbanke are an Ika speaking group though and I not am not saying that they are Edo. I'm merely pointing out that this is not so obvious like you claim.

Second, I did not say anything about the "Ojehs or Ezes of Igbanke" being "unique" in Anioma in having multiple rulers so I don't know what you're talking about and I think this is more evidence of some sort of confusion as far as reading things and taking the time to understand what is written there. I said that each community of Igbanke was granted a position in the Benin traditional council and I don't know what thoughts allowed you to twist my words into a claim that the number of rulers there was unique in Anioma.

3) Prof Elizabeth Isichei is Caucasian and I know too well. In our custom , any married woman is deemed as part and parcel of her community where she is married.T hus Anioma daughtes like Chief Janet Mokelu ( nee Onwuegbuzia) is often claimed to be from Anambra State or in this case Dr Ngozi Iweala is claimed to be from Abia State. Prof Isichei wrote so much about Igbos(and Anioma people) because she saw herself as an Igbo I am therefore correct to group her as an Igbo because it is our custom to do likewise.

It's entirely your opinion that she should be counted for the Anioma. She's a white Westerner to me.

This would be like me claiming that Irene Ighodaro, one of the first female doctors in West Africa and the first President of the Medical Association of Nigerian Women, was Edo, when she was really a Sierra Leone Krio. Or it would be like claiming that Dr. Grace Guobadia (nee Pepple), the first female Nigerian dental surgeon, was Edo when she was really Ijaw.

Irene Ighodaro was not Bini and Elisabeth Isichei is not Igbo.

But if I am not so keen on her being an Oyibo,

For obvious reasons.

I will then mention Prof M A Onwuejeogwu who is more celebrated than Prof Philip Igbafe.

More celebrated? On what basis? His book on Nri?

Onwuejeogwu's writings are mostly in the same area (oral history, mythology, culture, and tradition) as Egharevba's work, rather than being similar to professor Igbafe's work in form or focus, so it is a strange comparison.

Anyway, I did not mention Egharevba earlier, but I think you know very well (although you would be too dishonest to admit it),that Jacob Egharevba, who wrote about the exact same kind of material (culture and history) for his own group, is much more celebrated and influential than Professor Onwuejeogwu.

Now, on those people of Edo stock, I think you are the one who I will say is proud of his people because most of the people you named donot even match the Anioma people I listed and you know it.

When I compared Daniel Okunbor or Nosakhare Omoigui to Charles Uwadia, I was pointing out that both Okunbor and Omoigui had some actual research achievements, while Uwadia has very little to his credit in terms of actual research. On the entrepreneurial front, or software impact front, he lags behind Omoigui by miles. Omoigui's work while at Microsoft actually had an impact and by the age of 28 he was in important meetings with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

To compare Zulu Sofola with Dan Izevbaye (Nigeria's foremost literary theorist and critic, second only to Francis Abiola Irele) would be more fitting, but I would still put Izevbaye ahead in this area. Izevbaye has been acclaimed as a legend in his field and he's still alive. I don't know where you read that Zulu Sofola received similar praise. I also wouldn't put Sofola above Sophie Oluwole, either. Since we've been on the topic of presidents of societies, she was once president of the Nigerian Philosophical Association and was the only woman to hold that position.


To compare Linus Ajabor to Osato Frank Giwa-Osagie is much more ludicrous, however. Dr. Osato Giwa-Osagie's achievements floor those of Dr. Ajabor. In fact, I don't see how you can compare the Nigerian Gynaecologists & Obstetricians society to the West African College of Surgeons. They're on two different tiers. One of these is for local achievement, while the other is for regional achievement. In fact, the same Professor Ajabor proudly lists on his CV that he is a Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons, which Osato Giwa-Osagie presided over. I think your impression might have to do with Dr. Giwa-Osagie not listing all of his credentials and his full resume and all his "Who's Who" listings in an accessible format like Dr. Ajabor, who placed so much emphasis in his CV on all those "who's who" listings.

Because Professor Giwa-Osagie didn't post his whole CV online as did Ajabor, you're making all sorts of unfounded claims. Dr. Giwa-Osagie and Dr. Ashiru performed the first successful live birth from IVF in all of West Africa at a time when only Egypt and South Africa could even do IVF in Africa. Yes, Dr. Ajabor is accomplished, but what comparable thing did Ajabor actually do? You'll find nothing.

Since you seem to be so easily impressed by titles, let me just point out that Professor Osato F. Giwa-Osagie, MAMB, BCHIR (Cantab), M.Sc (Leeds), FRCOG, FMCOG,  FICS, FACOG (South Africa, honoris causa), FWACS, OON, Chevalier de L’ordre national du Lion (Senegal), etc. and past President of the WACS, was also one of the few professors of UNILAG to be conferred with the distinction of "Distinguished Professor" in its history.

For you to compare Ajabor to Giwa-Osagie is just silly. I won't even discuss this any further. Giwa-Osagie is etched in a part of Nigeria's history and he is still alive. On this issue you are just making noise, and I won't accept the comparison.


Anyway, if this was just about listing presidents of medical societies, then I would have just mentioned Professor Gregory Efosa Erhabor, a distinguished physician, who is currently president of the Nigerian Thoracic Society. You can see some of his academic distinctions here:

http://nigerianthoracicsociety.org/president.html


Or I could have mentioned Professor Enosakhare S. Akpata, who is a past president of the Nigerian Dental Association (1984-1986), formerly a Fulbright Fellow (1981) and who is Foundation Editor of the African Dental Journal,. In fact, Professor Enosakhare Akpata was a full professor at the University of Ibadan by 1979, while Dr. Ajabor was still a senior lecturer/associate professor. Not surprisingly, his research is also of higher impact and he is more highly published.
I also know for a fact that he's also listed in several of those "who's who" lists, that your "favorite" Dr. Ajabor emphasize so much on his CV.

However, since Professor Giwa-Osagie is actually more impressive, and since he happens to be in the exact same field as Dr. Ajabor, I mentioned him instead. Both Professor Akpata and Professor Giwa-Osagie are more accomplished


Bringing up H.U. Isichei is just silly, however. Who on earth is H.U. Isichei and what did he actually do in psychiatry to make him "notable"? He's unheard of. Don't know why you even brought him up.


As for the claim that Dr. Binitie is Itsekiri, I would like to see evidence of that. I read where he was described as a native of  Benin City. I now think he may not have been Bini but he was not necessarily Itsekiri and he was definitely from one of the groups in Edo state. You may be making the assumption that the name Binitie is exclusive to Itsekiri but that is completely and totally false.


Regarding Dr. Chike Onwuachi, I'm sure he's a pioneer in a sense, but if you're talking about political science (not anthropology), he definitely does not rank ahead of Dr. Eghosa Osaghae. Unlike Dr. Giwa Osagie and some others, Dr. Osaghae does post easily accessible lists with his awards and fellowships listed (http://www.iuokada.edu.ng/AboutUS/ViceChancellor.aspx is one example) and you can clearly see that he's definitely ahead of Dr. Onwuachi by any objective assessment (and without even using any reference to any of the many "Who's who" lists Osaghae is on) though I am not sure that you could look at things objectively and admit that Dr. Osaghae is the more accomplished and prominent of the two.

Let me perhaps give more names to spice up another mismatch of names from you, Mrs Rose Nsolo the first female architect in Nigeria,

Mismatch? lmao

This is coming from someone who brought up H.U. Isichei as a bragging point because his name was on wikipedia!

Never heard of Rose Nsolo.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Professor Rebecca N. Agheyisi was the first woman from Nigeria to earn a doctorate in linguistics (Stanford University, 1971).

Dr Vincent Maduka the first Director General of the NTA and once president Nigerian Society of Engineers,

LMAO!

So now the Nigerian Society of Engineers is worth mentioning despite "not being an academic institution" and the president "not needing to hold a Ph.D" !!

And Mr. Maduka, who holds an M.Eng.Sc. in Applied Acoustics from UCD, Dublin, and not a Ph.D or D.Sc (so why are you calling him Dr,?) is mentionable, despite lacking the Ph.D you were fussing about earlier when I mentioned Aiwerioba!!

Lol. Why do you keep making yourself ridiculous with these contradictions?

I'll just assume that he received at least one honorary doctorate (not a real Ph.D) from somewhere that hasn't been listed and that you didn't make a mistake in calling him Dr. If I were like you I would accuse you of deliberately trying to mislead people in order to cover up your own statement about Aiwerioba, the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the Ph.D stuff.

However, I'm not going to do that, and I'll just take it as a genuine omission or error. I still find  this total volte-face about the Nigerian Soceity of Engineers funny though. It's just hypocritical. You have completely and totally contradicted yourself here.

Anyway, if you want to talk about first Director General of this or that, Vincent Maduka is comparable to Hayford Alile. If you read their full biographical summaries/sketches, their careers are basically parallel, except that Hayford Alile has held a few more important positions.

Mrs Monica Mbanefo Director of Technical Cooperate Division IMO and once contested as Secretary General of the Organization

Female achievers huh? Okay. No problem, although I have to say, some of the stuff you're picking is just too specific (the International Maritime Organization) to be exactly matched.

There is Mrs. Esther Eghobamien, a former Eisenhower Fellow, who is Head of Gender issues at the Commonwealth Secretariat, and involved with CEDAW at the UN.

There is also Professor Yinka Omorogbe, the former Dean of Law at the University of Ibadan, past Secretary General of the Nigerian Society of International Law, and the only African member of the Academic Advisory Group of SEERIL (the Energy, Environmental, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law group).

And of course, there is Claire Ighodaro CBE, who has been on the board of multiple prestigious business organizations in the UK, is a non-executive director of Lloyd’s of London, the Lending Standards Board and the British Council and is the first black person and the first woman to be president of the CIMA.

Mr EC Osondu Caine Prize winner 2009,

Never heard of him. Let's hope he has more than that one story to his credit.

Ms Buchi Emechete famous writer,

I'll definitely give you this one. She's definitely a standout.

I've only read one of her books, but she is definitely more acclaimed than Festus Iyayi (only Nigerian to win the Commonwealth Prize for Literature). I'll concede that point.


But I don't think in visual arts, you could muster up names like Felix Idubor, Erhabor Emokpae, Festus Idehen, Ovia Idah,  Felix Eboigbe, or Paul Osagie Osifo. In fact, I don't know if any group in Nigeria could roll out a list of Nigerian visual artists as acclaimed as those 6 for their group. I also don't know whether you could muster up newer artists like Leo Asemota, Stanley Agbontaen, Bayo Iribhogbe, or Richardson Ovbiebo either.

I'll give you guys credit on the literary contributions though.

Prof Maxwell Meju award winner in Geophysics,

I went to his university page. The shaft picture was funny. The prof seems to have a good sense of humor.

Anyways, I actually know that there are lots of winners of small awards (such as the Gerald Hohmann Award for Excellence in Applied Electrical Geophysics that you're referring to) here and there from both Anioma and Edo.

All of these people have won research awards at one time or another:

Zuwa Omoregie (won the AIME Rossiter W. Raymond Memorial Award)

Nosa Egiebor (United States Department of Energy Professorial Chair of Excellence in Environmental Science & Engineering at Tuskegee University, formerly a professor of Mineral and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada). You can see some of his awards on these three sites:

http://www.massiechairs.com/egiebor.htm

http://www.massiechairs.com/egiebor_Prof_Accom.htm

http://arist-edu.org/Pages/FacultyView.aspx?FacultyId=9

Nosakhare Omoigui and Christopher Oriakhi that I mentioned earlier have also won awards.

The same Professor Osato F. Giwa-Osagie mentioned above won a prize of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain in 1984 along with  Dr. Ashiru.


Johnson A. Edosomwan (a Fellow of the IIE (Institute of Industrial Engineers), formerly at a high position at IBM) has won some awards (the 1988 Outstanding Young Industrial Engineer Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, among many others) from the IIE in the U.S. as well. He has also won awards from IBM.

In his area of industrial engineering, Edosomwan is recognized authority and has won bigger awards than the Gerald Hohmann Award that you mentioned for Dr. Meju


And I could mention Professor Collins O. Airhihenbuwa who has won many awards as well

lol, how is the popularity of the mask the main reason that they used it? The reason it was used was to reference the connection between Benin and Issele Uku.

Would people from Urhoboland use  the Queen Idia mask? Would Itsekiris use the Queen Idia mask? It's very popular, as I said in my previous post, but I haven't actually seen that many southern Nigerian ethnic groups outside of Edo state use it in the way that Issele Uku organization used it.

At least Ogbuefi thought about it enough to realize that they used the mask specifically to show a connection with Benin, although he didn't notice the strange irony of using a mask representing the enemy of a group's ancient ancestor/leader to represent a group's link to Benin. That's just strange to me. Maybe they aren't that familiar with their own history, or they don't care that this is the person who is believed to have trespassed against their group's ancient leader.

https://img695.imageshack.us/img695/2097/captureanotherbeninhand.jpg




Figs. 382 and 383. Cubical metal lamp, with handle, chain and hook for suspension.
The hook is ornamented at its lower half with raised transverse incised
lines and lozenge-shaped incisions. It is attached to a chain of three links,
the upper and lower ones being oval ; the middle one is 8-shaped. The
other end of the chain is attached to a loop which projects from the head
of a Unclad human figure (length of figure is 2½ inches), the feet of which
are fixed by a loop of copper wire to the handle of the bar ; the handle has
a zigzag guilloche pattern on the upper side. There is a human face in
relief on the sides of the body of the lamp, with fish-scale pattern on the
groundwork. The borders of the lamp are raised rope pattern, and have
a double loop knot at each corner. The lamp has four legs, and from the
centre of the bottom is a small round piece projecting, and not so long as
the legs. It is capped with a circular bottom, which is decorated with
incised concentric circles. Height from top of hook when suspended is
26 inches.

https://img560.imageshack.us/img560/9145/capturebeninhandlampsfr.jpg



Fig. 309. Square brass lamp, with four receptacles for wicks, one at each corner.
Ornamented with dots of repoussé work, and suspended by an iron chain
with long links and a hook.


Figs. 310 to 313. Bronze lamp, apparently with gold in its composition. The basin
patched and riveted with copper.



From the book Antique works of art from Benin by Pitt Rivers

https://img94.imageshack.us/img94/7442/sbookgreatbenin.jpg


https://img59.imageshack.us/img59/9963/capturedesignsonarmsofh.jpg

From Great Benin by H. Ling Roth

http://maxsiollun./2010/03/23/nigeria%E2%80%99s-forgotten-heroes-nnamdi-azikiwe-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Cfather-of-the-nation%E2%80%9D-part-1/

Jefferson's ideological contributions to his nation were clearly more substantive than Zik's own.



That said, I don't really understand all the Zik bashing on this thread and on the other thread about Zik's grave.


"ZIK and Mandela
In 1961, the racist government of South Africa and British Intelligence were furiously looking for Nelson Mandela. He was obliged to take refuge in Nigeria, and Zik, the Governor General, assigned him to live with me at Ikoyi. I was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Information.

Mandela lived with me at No.5 Okotie –Eboh Street, Ikoyi for more than four months. About the fifth month, Mandela soliloquized openly to my hearing, “for how long must I continue in this hide and seek game. I’d better go back to South Africa to give leadership to the people; if they kill me, my death will inspire the other nationalists to continue the struggle until total victory is won”.

That was how he decided to return to South Africa where he was shortly arrested and imprisoned for life. How he was aided financially when he was going, I do not know; that was at the level of Zik and Dr. Okpara, who was then the Premier of Eastern Region. Apart from the youths who passed through the NCNC Political School, Zik was concerned with the low level of education in some of these sister African countries and initiated a Special Scholarship Scheme for them in the Eastern Regional Government. Dr. Okpara inherited and expanded it.

That is why one would find so many boys and girls from these African countries in the Queens College, Enugu, Government College, Umuahia and Abbot Boys College, Ihiala (then owned by Hon. G.E. Okeke, the Minister of Education). Some of these boys and girls who were caught up by the Biafran war were smuggled home to their counties through Gabon."


He was clearly concerned with improving all of Africa, not just Nigeria.


On who coined the term "Zik of Africa" it's not really clear. Seems to have been around since at least the 1950s:

http://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=zik+of+africa&tbs=,cdr:1,cd_min:Jan%201_2%201900,cd_max:Dec%2031_2%201960&num=10




I think Zik of Nigeria is more realistic than Zik of Africa, although he was clearly committed to pan-Africanism.

There were a few in Timbuktu (Mali) from what I've read. There's some sort of project going on right now which is translating some of the written works found in Timbuktu.

http://www.islandmix.com/backchat/f6/libraries-timbuktu-166732/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/62936533.html

http://www.eurastro.de/missions/mali07/mali07.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu_Manuscripts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Timbuktu-manuscripts-astronomy-mathematics.jpg




There was also some Fulani scholar from Northern Nigeria who wrote something on magic squares a few hundred years ago.

Augustin Banyaga and Wilfrid Gangbo are pretty good.


David Blackwell was great.



Don't know if there are any others.